2021 Q2 Anime Wrap-Up

Day(s) late, dollar short

There was plenty I didn’t actually get around to watching that I intended to during last season’s airing series. So, offerings will be pretty sparse this time. And I’m already behind on the current season. Fun stuff.

Catching Up

Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken

Chewed through some more episodes of the first season of ye olde Slime Boy finally breaking into the second cour of the season. So, really, only like two years behind at this point.

If you’ve ever seen the show, the minute to minute beats are basically the same kind of think you’ve come to expect. If you haven’t seen it, you get these kind of weird juxtapositions between this peaceful, colorful village life and combatants having their heads cut off and otherwise completely destroyed in the next episode. As the series continues, more of the ideal, slow village comedy elements take a backseat to political arms races. It kind of straddles an interesting line in that aspect.

My continued not finishing of the first cour of the series doesn’t have anything to do with my enjoyment factor. Having read the manga up to a point that is even further out than the second season is showing, I don’t feel like I have to just watch it all right now. I’ll probably continue to peck away at episodes as time passes, who knows, maybe we’ll even finish before the next season of anime starts.

Verdict: Same Slime season, same Slime taste

Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumei shitemita.

I’ll keep this real short as this is the show I’ve spent the least amount of time with covered in here. (That I’ve actually watched something of)

The premise is pretty simple: What if we had a RomCom where the main characters were science students at a university. They’re pretty sure they’re in love with each other, but, there are two problems.

1. They don’t know what love is
2. We must now solve for what love is… by using the scientific method and, of course, devising their own experiments for their methods, hilarity ensues

It’s dumb fun and a somewhat interesting take on the RomCom protagonists being the densest materials in the galaxy. This time, we start out with the confession basically already being there. We just have to prove it with science. For reasons.

Verdict: I dunno, I’ll probably keep watching it

Q1 2021 Wrap Up

Going to split this off into two sections this time. Things I actually watched and things I wanted to watch but didn’t actually get a chance to drop into.

What I actually watched

Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san

Well, hey, that didn’t go as poorly as I anticipated it would after it was announced. The reaction to the show, from the community at large, was pretty decent as well.

In a refreshing kind of old way, the “drama” around the show centered around why certain subtitles are bad because they used the SUS AMOGUS word a couple of times through the series. A term that nobody EVER, certainly not teenagers, used before Among Us got huge. I’ll take the Twitter posts about Japanese people not using any kind of slang or just the language itself having no slang (???) over posts about if you make a character under 5’8″ you’re a pedophile any day.

The series itself is a pretty faithful adaptation of the source material. In a pretty good choice, they cut down some of the less “kind hearted bullying” (I guess as kind hearted as it could be) at the start of the series and allowed our two main leads to actually grow to like each other on camera instead of just leaning into an easy fetish checkbox.

You mileage may still vary with the series, if you don’t really enjoy the dynamic between our leads after the first three or four episodes, it’s probably not a series for you. And that’s fine. You’re allowed to not like things.

Verdict: Recommended

NOMAD: Megalo Box 2

A season that, going in, I didn’t think needed to exist. I was very, very, very much wrong about that.

NOMAD becomes much more than just the modern day retelling of AnJ as the second season, with the step back from the ring (even more so than the first season), allows the show space to breathe and tackle sociopolitical analogues and issues the real world, currently, is more and more focused on each day.

I won’t talk much about it because I really think it’s something you should go in and just see for yourself and letting you, the reader, in on much more would just be spoilers.

Verdict: Early contender for Anime of the Year, must see

And the really covers it for the stuff I ended up watching and finishing for the last quarter. There was plenty more that I wanted to get to, and, probably will if the series for the current season slow down for me.

2021 Q1 Backlog spotting

Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou.

Honestly, other than the two shows I actually watched this past season, this was the other show that most interested me going in. For the most part, it seems like it was a pretty well received adaptation that was marred with production issues in its back-half. I’m still reading the manga for the series so this will probably end up getting picked up sooner or later.

Osananajimi ga Zettai ni Makenai Love Come

Another series that I was interested in when it was first announced. And then, I continued to read the source material. I’m in a weird spot with this because it feels like the climax was already so soon in the series, but, we needed to continue on. For some reason. From love triangle to love square to how the fuck knows how many more characters we’ll just randomly find out actually have hots for generic RomCom protagonist that was a former child actor.

If I actually continue to read the manga (I probably will, I have brain rot) I’ll probably pick this show up as well.

Odd Taxi

The show that really came out of left field this season. Having known nothing about it at all, it seemed to obtain quite the following as it aired. The premise alone is intriguing enough for me to consider to watch it.

86: Eighty Six

One of the heavier hitters from last season and, of course, whom’st’ve among us doesn’t enjoy a Mecha show from time to time. Sometime I’ve seen scanlations of every once and a while, it just hasn’t completely piqued my interest enough to jump in just yet. Maybe the anime series will change my mind.

Tokyo Revengers

Speaking of things I’ve seen scanlations of for a while. Tokyo Revengers, the manga, is probably still in a backlog of mine somewhere out there. This is still airing, so, I could catch up and finish pretty quick.

(The previously described scenario will not happen)

Fumetsu no Anata e

Speaking of things still airing: Fumetsu no Anata e. Which, other than Odd Taxi, seemed to be the show that most came out of nowhere that got a pretty decent sized following and rave reviews. This seems pretty close to Dororo_{(ororororororo…)} which was another series I was interested in and ended up losing sight of as it sank into the depths of my backlog. Probably going to end up watching those two at the same time

Alright, with that out of the way, let’s see what’s on the docket for the season that’s actually already airing.

2021 Q2 Preview

(It’s a preview because I’m already behind)

Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki

It’s the Summer and you know what that means: Isekai. A lot of Isekai.

You may be saying to yourself “but, isn’t that every season?” and it certainly is. But, there’s just a lot more that are set to air that I had planned to watch, starting with this one.

Produced by JC Staff, which gives me enough reason to kind of pause, the story centers around our average Japanese man that gets summoned to another world. And then is immediately made King of the country that summons him because the current King is too soft to continue to rule. Our homie immediately gets around to turning it from a monarchy into a form of a more modern government. There’s also monster girls. What more do you need?

Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu

What would’ve probably have happened at the start of Konosuba. Our main character is ripped from the normal world at the whims of a Goddess in another world. He mouths off, she still rewards him with power, but, makes it so the citizens of the world he’s being dropped into think he’s incredibly ugly. Also, she throws him into the corner of the world, out in the wastes surrounded by monsters.

He lives, of course, and starts to gain powerful allies by defeating them in combat. The first being a massive legendary dragon who ends up becoming a Weeb by using his memories to watch Nobunaga related TV dramas the protagonist had seen when he was a kid.

It is all very, very stupid. But, still, I find myself enjoying the source material which is enough for me to, probably, give it a watch.

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai!

Our third Isekai in a row, Jahy is a reverse Isekai starring our now poor former Demon Lord trying to recover her power in our “normal” world. Hataraku Maou-sama! if the main character was a cute girl.

What do you want from me?

Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid

The adaptation I’m most terrified for this season. The only material I’ve seen of the show so far was that PV video they showed off where it was a CGI dance scene between or Duke and his faithful maid Alice.

It looked terrible.

If it’s just small scenes like that scattered throughout the series, I’ll probably be able to stomach it. The series itself is a RomCom with progression that isn’t just “oh man, will our two main characters be able to fall in love with each other”, that is pretty much already a forgone conclusion. It’s more like “how do we get rid of this curse” and the answer to that question will lead our group of lovable idiots through a world of magic and mystery.

It’s a very nice series that deserves a quality adaptation. I just hope that I can actually get one.

Closing

Well, that covers just about everything from Q1 that, at least, interested me. Q2 seems like a pretty standard Summer season for anime. a calm before the storm that Q3 is shaping up to be. (At least for me)

And, hey, I can go back to reading trash now instead of just watching it. It’s been a long, long three(?) months. And it’s time to add more to the backlog currently reading pile.

Until next time.